It is excellent news that permission has been granted for a biogas plant at Standhill (Southern, July 12).

But your article misrepresents the need for a wind turbine to “power” the digester. The point of biogas plants is to produce power, not consume it – the one proposed at Standhill will generate about 1,600 megawatts, worth more than £250,000 per year.

If Jim Shanks’ biogas plant is a net user of power, it really will be a world first. As well as electricity, these plants produce an equivalent amount of waste heat, and it is this, not a turbine, which might create employment if used, for example, drying wood fuel.

As an expert in the production of hot air, it will be Mr Shanks’ challenge to harness it for economic benefit. And, as a neighbouring farmer, I certainly wish him well in that.

But the sole purpose of the wind turbine in his scheme is to produce more money – and it has no connection with the biogas plant or its possible jobs.

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